CRI.----That writer, who confiders man only as an instrument of paffion, who abfolves him from all ties of conscience and religion, and leaves him no law to respect or to fear, but the law of the land, is to be sure a public benefit. You mistake, Euphranor, if you think the Minute Philosophers idle theorists: They are men of practical views.

EUPH.---As much as I love liberty, I should be afraid to live among such people: it would be, as Seneca fomewhere expreffeth it, in libertate bellis ac tyrannis seviore..

Lys.---What do you mean by quoting Plato and Seneca ? Can you imagine a free-thinker is to be influenced by the authority of such old-fashioned writers ?

EUPH.----You, Lyficles, and your friend, have quoted to me ingenious moderns, profound fine gentlemen, with new names of authors in the Minute Philosophy, to whose merits I am a perfect stranger. Suffer me, in my turn, to cite such authorities as I know, and have passed for many ages upon the world.

VII. But, authority apart, what do you say to experience? My observation can reach as far as a private family: and some wife men have thought, a family may be confidered as a small kingdom, or a kingdom as a great family. Do you admit this to be true ?

Lys.--If I say yes, you will make an inference; and if I say no, you will demand a reason. The best way is, to say nothing at all. There is, I see, no end of answering.

EUPH. If you give up the point you undertook to prove, there is an end at once: But if you hope to convince me, you must answer my questions, and allow me the liberty to argue and infer.

Lys. Well, suppose I admit that a kingdom may be. considered as a great family. EUPH.-I shall ask you then, whether ever you knew

private families thrive by those vices you think so beneficial to the public ?

Lys. Suppose I have not ?

EUPH. Might not a man, therefore, by a parity of reason, suspect their being of that benefit to the public? Lys. Fear not, the next age will thrive and flourish. EUPH.-Pray tell me, Lysicles, Suppose you saw a fruit of a new untried kind; would you recommend it to your own family to make a full meal of ?

LYS. I would not.

EUPH.-Why then would you try, upon your own country, these maxims, which were never admitted in any other?

Lys. The experiment must begin somewhere; and we are resolved our own country shall have the honor and advantage of it.

EUPH. O Lyficles! hath not Old England subsisted
for many ages without the help of your notions ?
Lys. She has.

EUPH.--And made some figure ?
Lys. I grant it.

EUPH.-Why then should you make her run the risk of a new experiment, when it is certain she may do without it ?

Lys. But we would make her do better. We would produce a change in her, that never was seen in any nation.

EUPH.----Sallust observes, that a little before the downfall of the Roman greatness, avarice (the effect of luxury) had erased the good old principles of probity and justice, had produced a contempt for religion, and made every thing venal: while ambition bred dissimulation, and caufed men to unite in clubs and parties, not from honorable motives, but narrow and interested views. The same historian observes, of that ingenious free-thinker, Catiline, that he made it his business to infinuate himself into the acquaintance of young men, whose minds, unimproved

by years and experience, were more easily seduced. I know not how it happens, but these passages have occurred to my thoughts more than once during this converfation.

Lys.--Salluft was a sententious pedant.

EUPH.----But consult any historian: look into any writer. See, for instance, what Xenophon and Livy say of Sparta and Rome, and then tell me, if vice be not the likeliest way to ruin and enslave a people.

Lys.----When a point is clear by its own evidence, I never think it worth while to confult old authors about it.

CRI.----It requires much thought and delicate observation, to go to the bottom of things. But one who hath come at truth with difficulty, can impart it with ease. I will therefore, Euphranor, explain to you in three words (what none of your old writers ever dreamed of) the true cause of ruin to those states. You must know, that vice and virtue, being oppofite and contradictory principles, both working at once in a state, will produce contrary effects, which intestine difcord must needs tend to the diffolution and ruin of the whole. But it is the design of our Minute Philosophers, by making men wicked upon principle, a thing unknown to the ancients, so to weaken and destroy the force of virtue, that its effects shall not be felt in the public. In which cafe, vice being uncontrouled, without let or impediment of principle, pure and genuine, without allay of virtue, the nation must doubtless be very flourishing and triumphant.

EUPH. Truly, a noble scheme!

CRI.---And in a fair way to take effect. For our young proficients in the Minute Philofophy, having, by a rare felicity of education, no tincture of bigotry or prejudice, do far outgo the old standers and professors of the sect; who, though men of admirable parts; yet, having had the misfortune to be imbued in their childhood with fome religious notions, could never after get entirely rid of them; but still retain some small grains of confcience and superstition, which are a check upon the noblest genius. In proof of this, I remember that the famous Minute Philofopher, old Demodicus, came one day from conversation upon business with Timander, a young gentleman of the same sect, full of astonishment. I am surprised, faid he, to fee so young, and withal so complete a villain, and, such was the force of prejudice, spoke of Timander, with abhorrence, not confidering that he was only the more egregious and profound philosopher of the two.

VIII. EUPH.-Though much may be hoped from the unprejudiced education of young gentlemen, yet, it seems, we are not to expect a settled and entire happiness, before vice reigns pure and unmixed: Till then, much is to be feared from the dangerous struggle between vice and virtue, which may perchance overturn and dissolve this, government, as it hath done others.

Lys. No matter for that, if a better comes in its place. We have cleared the land of all prejudices towards government or constitution, and made them fly like other phantasms before the light of reason and good sense. Men, who think deeply, cannot see any reason, why power should not change hands, as well as property: or, why the fashion of a government should not be changed as easily as that of a garment. The perpetual circulating and revolving of wealth and power, no matter through what or whose hands, is that which keeps up life and spirit in a state. Those who are even flightly read in our philosophy, know that, of all prejudices, the filliest is an attachment to forms.

CRI.-To say no more upon so clear a point, the overturning a government may be justified upon the same principles as the burning a town, would produce parallel effects, and equally contribute to the public good. In both cafes, the natural springs of action are forcibly exerted; And in

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this general industry, what one loses another gets, a quick circulation of wealth and power making the fum total to

flourish.

EUPH.-And do the Minute Philosophers publish these things to the world?

Lys. It must be confefsed, our writers proceed in politics with greater caution, than they think necessary, with regard to religion.

CRI.-But those things plainly follow from their principles, and are to be admitted for the genuine doctrine of the sect, expressed, perhaps, with more freedom and perfpicuity, than might be thought prudent by those, who would manage the public, or not offend weak breth

ren.

EUPH. And pray, is there not need of caution, a rebel, or incendiary, being characters, that many men have a prejudice against ?

Lys.-Weak people, of all ranks, have a world of abfurd prejudices.

EUPH-But the better fort, such as statesmen and legislators; do you think, they have not the fame indispofition towards admitting your principles ?

Lys. Perhaps they may; but the reason is plain.

CRI. This puts me in mind of that ingenious Philofopher, the gamester, Glaucus, who used to say, that statefmen and lawgivers may keep a stir about right and wrong, just and unjust, but that, in truth, property, of every kind, had so often pafsed from the right owners, by fraud and violence, that it was now to be confidered as lying on the common, and, with equal right, belonged to every one that could feize it.

EUPH.-What are we to think then of laws and regulations, relating to right and wrong, crimes and duties?

LYS.-They serve to bind weak minds, and keep the vulgar in awe: But no sooner doth a true genius arife, but he breaks his way to greatness, through all the tram

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